The Biography of The King
Isa 53:1-12 Who has believed our report? and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? (2) For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; And when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him. (3) He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. (4) Surely, He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. (5) But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. (6) All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, everyone, to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. (7) He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth. (8) He was taken from prison and from judgment, and who will declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living; For the transgressions of My people He was stricken. (9) And they made His grave with the wicked—But with the rich at His death, because He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth. (10) Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand. (11) He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities. (12) Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong, because He poured out His soul unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors, And He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
You know, every time I read this passage in Isaiah, I wonder how there could possibly be any Jews left who still haven’t believed in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. No person writing a brief biography of the Life and Times of Jesus Christ as a contemporary and an eyewitness could have more perfectly described the life and ministry of Jesus Christ than Isaiah did more than 700 years before He was born! And to me, this is just more evidence that we have of…
I. The Supernatural Birth of the King
Gen 3:15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel."
From dawn of time, the plan of God to bring mankind back into relationship with Himself was openly declared to our first father and mother. That Messiah would come was foreordained, which means it was sure to happen. The very moment that sin entered in, God’s plan went into effect and just as surely as He spoke those words to Adam and Eve about the Seed of the woman, that Seed would surely come, and He would bruise the serpent’s head. The birth of that Seed would be miraculous!
Isa 7:14 Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.
Isa 9:6 For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
It would be miraculous in the fact that the Seed would be born of a virgin! And matter of fact, if Jesus hadn’t been born of a virgin, then He wouldn’t have been sinless. Now, He was 100% man because He was born of a woman, but He was also 100% God because He was born of the Spirit. Had the seed of man entered into the picture anywhere, then Jesus would have been born into sin just as we all are. He would have needed forgiveness and salvation just as we do. But because He was born from the seed of woman who has no seed, that connection with sin was broken and bypassed by the Spirit.
Then, when the fullness of time approached and Gabriel brought his announcement to Mary, she may have questioned “How can this be?” She knew the facts of life as all small village children did back then. They raised animals. They knew of these things. So how could it be that a young maid who had never known a man have a child? It was a sensible question because such a thing had never happened before. No precedent established. This was a new act of God in history, and so instead of being punished for doubt as her uncle was, she was given an answer.
She was answered because I think God wanted to give Mary a choice. He wanted her to count the cost. To think about what it would mean for a young unmarried lady in her day and age to have a child out of wedlock. Her response demonstrated more faith and spiritual understanding than Moses, Gideon, and Jonah, because God had to convince all of them to do His bidding, while Mary simply said, Luk 1:38 …"Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word."
Jesus, conceived by the Holy Spirit is the Only Begotten Son of the Father. Because He was born of the flesh and the Spirit, He therefore could be tempted in all points like we are, and still be without sin. And after His miraculous, supernatural birth, He lived an ordinary and simple life. He was an infant, a child, an adolescent, a teenager, and finally an adult.
II. The Simple Life of the King
Luk 2:4-7 Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, (5) to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child. (6) So it was, that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered. (7) And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
This King was born in a humble way, in a humble place. Not Jerusalem, the seat of power, but in a small, rural village. The King of Kings wasn’t born in a palace, but a stable. The Lord of Lords wasn’t attended to by Lords and ladies, but by shepherds, livestock, and travelling wise men.
Our Lord Jesus Christ though beautiful in birth as any child is, grew into a man who wasn’t necessarily beautiful in the flesh. He was typical and ordinary. A Jew who had to be revealed to others with a traitor’s kiss. Isaiah tells us that Isa 53:2 …He has no form or comeliness; and when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him. But in the Spirit, He was magnificent and would be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and the Prince of Peace!
The simple life He led on earth would lead Him to fulfill God’s purpose, His predetermined plan, both for Him and for all mankind, which was…
III. The Substitutionary Death of the King
Isa 53:5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.
He came to pay for our sins—to take them upon Himself. But what is sin? As a child we thought of sin as simply doing something bad. Others would say that it’s anything that comes between you and God. But the Bible makes it absolutely clear. 1Jn 3:4 Everyone who commits sin also breaks the law; sin is the breaking of law.
Sin is the breaking of the law of God! The penalty of death has hung over the head of mankind ever since the Garden, and this is why our King was wounded and bruised. He suffered and died as payment for our debt. The blood of animals could never make us completely clean because they and all of creation have been tainted by man’s sin just as man has been (Rom 8:20-22). A tainted sacrifice could never make anything clean. This is why our substitute needed to be perfect, without spot or blemish; in other words, without sin.
A. He took our sins
Only Jesus could meet the law’s criteria of perfection. Only Jesus could be made in all points like we are, and still be without sin. Only Jesus could be the sinless lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. The salvation of man was never through the sacrifice of bulls and goats. That only pointed out how horrible sin is, and how heavy the penalty for sin is. Salvation can never be had by saying we’re sorry or reciting 50 Hail Mary’s and then going on and living as we always have without any change.
Being forgiven means that there will be a marked change in your behavior. The old has gone and the new has come! God sent His Son, so that His blood would make your sins whiter than snow. He bore the brunt of God’s judgment for us so that we can live with Him and for Him forever. Do you think that did all this for us so that we could continue living as we always have? God’s desire is that since His Son died for you, then you must resist and turn away from sin, not continue living in it. He is the Good Shepherd who laid down His life for the sheep, and that means you. He took our sins, but He also…
B. He took our shame (as well)
Isa 53:7 He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth. Like a lamb led to the slaughter and like a sheep silent before her shearers, He did not open His mouth.
He took our shame. He took our guilt. Have you ever been “ashamed”? When a person is guilty, and they know they’re guilty—they have no excuse. The shame of that guilt causes “normal” people to shut up—to close their mouths. To bow their heads. To take what’s coming to them. But Jesus wasn’t guilty of anything, except our guilt! So, He was quiet before His accusers and He bore our shame. Before those who railed against Him, “As a lamb led to the slaughter” He was quiet and gentle.
He took our sin. He took our shame.
C. He took our separation.
Isa 53:8 He was taken away because of oppression and judgment…He was cut off from the land of the living; He was struck because of my people's rebellion.
Oh friend, sin separates us from God because that which is truly holy cannot abide that which is unholy. The righteous cannot continue with the unrighteous. The law maker cannot suffer the law breaker. We were in harmony at one time, but when sin entered, everything changed. And now God calls us to come out from among them and to be separate, not from Him, but from sin!
By taking our sins upon Himself, Jesus became separated from God so that we could become united with God. While hanging on the cross, the veil was torn, the darkness fell, and the earth quaked. Something irregular, something unnatural had occurred in creation, and creation itself wept in sorrow because God had made 2Co 5:21 …the One who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
He was taken away because of oppression and judgment. He was cut off and struck down because of our rebellion. He took our sins. He took our shame. He took our separation, and
D. He took our suffering
Isa 53:9-10 They made His grave with the wicked and with a rich man at His death, although He had done no violence and had not spoken deceitfully. (10) Yet the LORD was pleased to crush Him severely. When You make Him a restitution offering, He will see His seed, He will prolong His days, and by His hand, the LORD's pleasure will be accomplished.
The suffering we would have gone through for all eternity, He took it when He took our sins upon Himself. *Jesus, being infinite, paid in a finite amount of time what we, being finite, would have had to pay for an infinite amount of time.
IV. The Saving Resurrection of the King
All that had gone on before. All the history of men and angels are bound up in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. All things that have gone on before were done according to the predetermined counsel and foreknowledge of the Father to be culminated in this single event, that Jesus would come to this earth and die for us. And you know, one might think that would be enough. But it’s not because God never intended to leave it there. He never intended to leave His body to rot in a grave. The sinless Son of God had to conquer death. He had to show that He had the power over both life and death. That death could not hold Him!
Paul told us that Jesus died Heb 2:14 …so that through His death He might destroy the one holding the power of death—that is, the Devil. And that He Rom 4:25 …was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. Then Peter preached Act 2:24 God raised Him up, ending the pains of death, because it was not possible for Him to be held by it.
O saints and sinners! The Lord’s death was for our sins, and His resurrection was for our justification! It proves that all He said was true! He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life! He is the Son of God, the Son of man, the Messiah! He told everyone that He would rise on the 3rd day, and by golly, He did it!
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the keystone of the Christian faith. Had He remained in the grave, He would have been nothing more than another itinerant prophet. But being raised He proved that He is the LORD! The Lord of Life, the great I AM, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, the One who is, who was, and who is to come, the bright and Morning Star.
And let me ask you folks, what do you think the chances are that someone who said many times that He would rise from the dead and then actually did it. What do you think the chances are that such a one, when He says that He will come again one day, that He will do that as well?
He said Mar 13:31 Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away. And Joh 14:1-3 "Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. (2) In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. (3) And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.
Oh friends, just as surely as Jesus was born of a virgin in Bethlehem and laid in a manger; and just as surely as He died on a cross for your sins and raised from the dead for your justification; He will also just as surely return again to this planet and gather His people to Himself and take them to His Father’s house.
When that happens, when that day comes, will you be ready? No one knows the day or hour, but when He comes, will you be ready for Him?
